When Presenting to the C-Suite, Organize Your Time Well

When you’re asked to share your idea with the C-suite, you have to be ready to prove its worth. The CEO likely hears a lot of smart ideas, so yours has to solve a business problem if it’s going to stand out. Spend the first 25% of your time calling out that problem. Talk about the pain points and build a sense of urgency. Spend the next 25% on the idea itself. Show how your initiative will be funded and how you expect it to grow and affect other parts of the organization. But don’t get bogged down in details. In fact, you should reserve the last 50% of your time for questions. While that seems like an outsize chunk, it can be the most valuable part of your talk. Rapid-fire, blunt questions are a sign that executives are interested in and testing the angles of your idea. The more questions you receive, the better the presentation.